May 2012
2 posts
lifeintheinternet asked: would love to get a beef recipe. please please. :)
belieberforlife asked: Hi! I'm so happy I stumbled across your blog, for my English class we were asked to find a recipe involving snails, and I was wondering if I would have permission to use yours? :)
March 2012
6 posts
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Lard or butter do not cause heart diseases or... →
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Pomegranate flavoured popcorns
Well, I had made pomegranate molasses/syrup a few weeks ago and I was pretty happy with myself. There were two pomegranates in our refrigerator and they had been lying there for a long long time. They weren’t good enough to eat but I could still juice them and make some molasses out of them. So, I did! You can follow the same steps as making sugarcane molasses to make pomegranate...
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Wasabi wings
I love raw mustard oil so it is kind of obvious that I have a huge appreciation for wasabi. Don’t you think that they taste a bit similar?
This is a recipe that has been cooking in my mind ever since I had a piece of wasabi prawns in Tasty Tangles (Bangalore). My sister tried recreating the wasabi sauce at home using wasabi paste and cream. It came out pretty close and would have been a...
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Tharoi thongba (river snails cooked in spicy...
I think I might lose some followers after this post (or maybe not). Snails are like clams or mussels only in a different shape… at least, that’s how I see it.
Manipuri cuisine includes a variety of fresh water snails (and clams… did I mention clams?). Snails are usually cooked with loklei (galangal) and heavily seasoned with fermented fish and various strong herbs. Snails...
February 2012
9 posts
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Kangsubi / Candied black sesame
Those who know Manipuri cuisine well know that when we talk of something sweet and something Manipuri, we are talking about the fascinating array of Kabok. Kabok can refer to any food grain which is heated and puffed… like popcorn or rice puffs. But because grains are traditionally puffed only to be candied and shaped with molasses into various shapes and sizes, the word, kabok, can...
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Yongchaak singju / stink bean salad
I have been putting off a post on yongchaak singju for some months now. But, I realised that yongchaak season will soon be over and then I wouldn’t have the chance to do a post on it and photograph this beautiful vegetable (yongchaak, that is) in all its splendor for another year.
Yongchaak is popularly known by the name stink bean, but is also called bitter bean, twisted cluster...
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Baked potatoes with garlic and thyme
I had gone to the new Ema Keithel (Women’s market) a few days ago and it had been one exciting day for me. There were so many ingredients that I wanted to try… one after the other. See those creepy looking eels. And one of those ingredients happened to be these lovely looking red potatoes. I bought a bagful of these inconveniently small sized potatoes just because they looked...
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Pomelo salad with peanuts
I had half a pomelo left in the fridge after I had eaten the other half a few days ago and thought I should come up with a sugarless pomelo salad. We usually don’t add sugar in the pomelo salad if thoiding (Manipuri sesame) is added to it. It’s a fairly easy recipe and I have made it a little more elaborate by adding a couple of ingredients to it.
For the salad, you will need:
...
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“People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, …....”
– Wendell Berry
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meikapi asked: must tell you this is an awesome blog. Love it :)
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Nanakusa-gayu (tweaked version)
It’s a month and 7 days late from Nanakusa no sekku or the festival of seven herbs but spring has just begun in Manipur and I guess it is not too late for this recipe. Nanakusa gayu or rice porridge with the seven herbs of springs is a dish eaten on the 7th of January by the Japanese people to celebrate the festival of seven herbs (starting of spring). The seven edible wild herbs (some...
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January 2012
8 posts
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Chicken kangsoi (with lomba)
I have just finished reading One Straw Revolution and it has been making me extremely hungry. Masanobu keeps talking about natural foods and how natural foods don’t require elaborate cooking as they are full of flavour in themselves. He talks about natural whole rice (brown rice) and natural local eggs. All his talking about these simple recipes made me long for Meitei yen (local chicken...
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Fried noodles with peanuts
I have been having this fried noodles from a garden restaurant in Lamsang for some time now. Though a bit too oily, I like the nutty flavour that their fried noodles have. Korou, as always, brought his super sensory powers to use and identified that nutty flavour was peanut. I could then identify crushed pieces of peanuts in the noodles.
I also wanted to make use of this large zucchini which...
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Fired or charred tomato soup
I have been very eager to try this recipe for some time now. Roasting the tomatoes in open flames rather than in ovens is so much better. The charred skin of the tomatoes would add a delicious aroma to the soup. And eating charcoal is detoxing, believe me! It might not look appetizing to some, but it is one of the most delicious concoction that I have discovered. Try it and you will know!
You...
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Sana thongba (Manipuri paneer curry)
This recipe is a celebration of milk! The sana, which is the main ingredient, is a milk product and the gravy is heavily milk. It is now a traditional Manipuri dish. But as far as I know, it probably came with Hinduism and the Brahmins. It is usually considered the tastiest dish in a vegetarian usop (traditional hindu Manipuri feasts), specially by the kids.
Mom makes it with fried peanuts...
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Homemade paneer / sana
Paneer, or what is known as Sana in Manipur, is one of the easiest cheeses to make in the world. It is a non-melting cheese similar to Queso blanco, only not salted. It is different from cottage cheese as the whey in it is drained and pressed out, while cottage cheese stays crumbly and some of the whey is retained inside the cheese.
Sana probably came into Manipuri cuisine with the Bengali...
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Chorphon (Ceylon Olive) ambon
Winter is about to end. And amongst the many delectable fruits and vegetables harvested at this time, chorphon is one of them. Chorphon, also known as Indian olive or Ceylon olive is a native fruit. It is usually sour and has the distinct taste of olive. Our farmhouse has a chorphon tree and this is the first harvest of the year.
For this recipe you will need:
some chorphon (the amount...
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Pork with hawaizaar and hangaam pere
I got a pork request from someone and that gave me the opportunity to do this post. Unlike my kitchen in Delhi, pork isn’t allowed inside our kitchen. It’s Mama’s territory here! But she was kind enough to allot me this space, right outside our kitchen, and let me cook it there. I prefer it that way since it means that I get to cook on charcoal. And in the open space, I get a...
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Powdered heikru (Indian gooseberry)
There are quite a number of things you can do with a bagful of Heikru (a.k.a. Amla/Indian gooseberry). My Aunt has a beautiful heikru tree which bears thousands of fruits every season….. and the fruits aren’t uncomfortably sour either.
So one fine day in October*, she came to visit us with a bagful of these.
I didn’t want to pickle them or dry them salted or boil them in...
November 2011
3 posts
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Hawai uri thongba / bonavista beans stew
Hawai uri or bonavista beans are one of my favourite beans and they are always tasty regardless of the cook’s skill. They are one of the foods that I like for their visual appeal. They are dark and green and handsomely proportioned. And I have always thought of them as freshly harvested food since I remember Mama cooking them that way… plucked from our kitchen garden or gifts from...
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Two things I did with butterfly pea flowers
These butterfly pea flowers (a.k.a. clitoria) were blooming all over the garden terrace and a new batch everyday. The flower is known by its hindi name, aprajita, locally*.
Ever since I found out that these are edible and can also be used as natural food colorings, I have been thinking of coming up with recipes around it. The following are not recipes per se but just try outs.
Try out #1
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Edible weed #1
I had sown these morning glory a few days after I had landed in Manipur. The soil that I used had carried some weed seeds and it is a booming mini forest now. Lot of weeds that we weed out and discard are not only edible but also highly nutritious. I don’t know what this weed is called in our local language but I have been referring to it as chaantruk maanbi since it tastes similar to a...
October 2011
8 posts
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Black rice pancake / Chaak-hao tann
I first had chaak-hao tann when I went for a trip to Moirang during Lai haraoba*. Right outside the Thangjing temple, there were stalls selling assorted exotic goodies. There were chaak-hao tann, singju, fried river crabs, boiled eggs, bora, etc. But, chaak-hao tann intrigued me most since I had never heard of it then. Apparently, they are sold in Moirang and Kakching keithels** and are not...
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Nobaab ametpa / pomelo salad
Nobaab ametpa or Manipuri pomelo salad is not as elaborate as the Thai pomelo salad but it serves as a quick afternoon snack because of it’s simplicity. I always remember being told not to have too much of it as it would give me a bad stomach. I think that might have been caused by the chili powder in the salad rather than the pomelo itself.
Pomelo is the largest citrus fruit. And as...
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Long beans cooked with slow roasted fish
Hawai asaangbi ngaaphak ka thongba or long beans cooked with slow roasted fish is one of my favourite Manipuri dishes. But my father hates it because of a bad childhood memory. I was telling Mama about my blog and had asked her to help me document some of the Manipuri dishes. Though she doesn’t belong to the internet generation of the Manipuri population, she is someone who is very...
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Ghost chili / U-morok pickled in mustard oil
Disclaimer: This post is not intended to scare/hurt/offend anyone.
Ghost chillies, or what we call u-morok in Manipuri (it literally translates as tree chillies), are the hottest chillies in the world. My first try for this recipe was with the chillies cut into small pieces instead of grinding them up in a blender. I have a very high tolerance for chillies and that has made me disrespect its...
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Laiwaa paaknam - baked bamboo shoot
I had done a couple of paaknam posts earlier and had described it in one of them. In brief, it is any assorted ingredients packed in turmeric leaves (and sometimes also banana leaves) and baked. Maybe it is the yaingang-laa (turmeric leaves) season that is making me do so many paaknam posts (3 so far).
But anyway, here is another one.
I was at our gate the other day, playing with our dogs,...
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Snapshots from the home terrace garden
Reblogged from our (blog shared with Korou) gardening blog.
thegreenmanifesto:
These are pictures of various corners of our home terrace garden. We have a really green terrace.
Red chillies getting dried near the fish pond. We have two ponds on the terrace.
A subukin in the fish pond. That’s water hyacinth floating on the water.
Some papaya saplings ready to be transplanted.
Winter...
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Fig and banana smoothie
So, I reached Manipur on the 27th and I have been living a life nearer to nature than the internet. But, I finally managed to get a connection and here I am!
Dad went to a place called Waikhom and he brought back some figs. They were gifted to him. Figs are considered wild here and they are harvested and gifted rather than cultivated and sold commercially. Locally, they are called heirit and...
peegaw asked: Hello! I actually sent 3 messages but I think Tumblr swallowed the other 2 haha...I was actually a bit disappointed at the number of responses on your bread post, because I was hoping there would be more qualified/experienced Baker-Tumblrs who could give pointers on bread,since I would love to know some too. Ah well, don't lose faith in those yeasty dough! :)
September 2011
17 posts
peegaw asked: ...or wide enough to let out the trapped gas as the bread bakes. That and also because your oven might have been too high (judging from the colour of your crust), so the crust forms a hard layer a little too quickly and it prevented the gas escaping from criss-cross you made and instead had to make new paths to escape (hence the random cracks). This might also explain the gummy texture of the...
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Black rice kimbap
I was feeling a little under the weather today…. been feeling that way since the last two days actually. So, I thought I should let Korou help me out with this post. Usually, he clicks the pictures when my hands aren’t free but I thought that I should ask him to make the food and I would do the clicking… kind of like a role reversal. So, if you see a pair of hairy hands in the...
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Seeking some bread baking advice
Hello everyone!
I have been baking a bit and have managed to make two fairly successful breads till now. I know that some of you are very talented bakers, so, please please please don’t let this be a post where I am talking to myself. I am seeking your advice and suggestions….. kind of a critique. I have Disqus comment embedded under my posts. If you go to the permalink (or just click...
Anonymous asked: Best blog ever. I m definitely going to bookmark it for my own good. - Sajid Waikhom (Abu Dhabi)
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Mint flavoured hummus
Hummus, pronounced hoom-us, is a paste made with cooked chickpeas, tahini paste, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. It’s a dish from the Levantine cuisine. Wikipedia tells me that it is a very ancient dish and the Egyptians used to make something similar, which was without the garlic. It can be eaten as a side dish, spread, dip or in any other manner that you fancy.
I had some pre-soaked...
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Mini banana and mint flatbreads
So, this is my entry for the tumblr food challenge for this month.
The theme for this month is Bananas, and that is indeed a challenge for me. You see, I don’t like bananas that much and very rarely use them in my cooking. So, initially, I had thought of using banana flower or banana stem for this challenge, since those things are already a part of our traditional cuisine. But then, I...
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Hello everyone!
A few days ago, few of my posts got featured in the food tag and likes, reblogs and followers have been pouring in because of that. I am happy that I am getting this chance to share a part of myself with so many people from all around the world.
To make things more accurate, I have updated my about page to make you guys understand me and the blog better. It is a bit long but I do hope that...
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Ngaa atoiba thongba (Manipuri fish stew)
Ngaa atoiba thongba is more of a way of cooking fish than a dish itself. The name itself describes the way the fish is cooked. Ngaa means fish and atoiba means disintegrated in our language. So, the fish is disintegrated in this way of cooking it. Usually, the ingredients are almost the same as the ones that are used in the Manipuri fried fish curry (will post that later)… the difference...
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Pomegranate chocolate brownies
I have attempted baking on a few occasions and I have failed more times than succeeded. I generally approach cooking with an intuitive and overconfident attitude. That, coupled with my impatience, is a recipe for disaster (specially, in baking), which many times, than not, ends up in the dustbin. And that hurts because I hate wasting food. All this, in turn, holds me back from trying to bake...
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Homemade butter
You must be wondering why this butter is white. I was puzzled too. Turns out that the cream that I was using was from buffalo’s milk! So, that makes it homemade buffalo’s milk butter. Sounds bad? That is the reason why I titled this post “Homemade butter” and decided to exclude the word “buffalo” from it.
We mostly get buffalo’s milk in Delhi. I had...
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Black rice risotto
I was so excited while planning out this recipe. It’s the first time I am using blue cheese in my cooking. It is also the first time that I am cooking something with alcohol in it (What? I am way pass the legal age!)
Well, risotto is an Italian rice dish. It is usually made with a starchy variety of rice, which is cooked in a broth (either vegetable, fish or meat based) and one or more...
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Singapore chicken rice
Singapore chicken rice or Hainanese chicken rice is something, which you will get in every food court in Singapore. I cannot help but admire the simplicity and the wholesomeness of this dish. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had two favorite dishes, which I used to eat frequently when I was in Singapore. One is the stir fried kangkong and the other is chicken rice. I survived my one year in...
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Stir fried kangkong (kolamni)
I had two favourite dishes that I always used to eat when I was in Singapore. Stir fried kangkong (a.k.a. kolamni/water spinach) was one of them. I have searched the net extensively to look for the recipe and I found many variations of it. The one that I loved to eat in Singapore fried the vegetable with small prawns (I don’t think they could actually be called shrimps though). I tried...
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Cauliflower / kobi kangsoi
Kangsoi is the most basic and loved dish in Manipuri/Meitei cuisine. It is healthy (I suppose) and requires no fuss in cooking. It can be defined as an assortment of vegetables boiled with ngaari and ginger and garnished with cilantro (this is a must). Sometimes, smoke roasted fish is added to it to enhance the taste.
However, with more and more Manipuris settling/studying outside Manipur,...